Family Reunion
by Dixie Dewdrop
Summary: Twelve year old Tony has no interest in reaching out to extended family. This is part of my Fate scenario.
1. What's Mine is Mine

**What's Mine is Mine**

When the phone rang Jethro Gibbs was at lunch, which was reallymore of a coffee break than a real lunch. He checked the i.d., expecting hisson, Tony. Rather than his son, though, it was his dad, Jackson Gibbs. ,

"Hey, Dad," Jethro greeted, "I was going to call you tonight. What's up?"

Jackson Gibbs cleared his throat and answered, "Well, you tell me what you were calling for first."

"I wanted to check a possible babysitting date with you. The Director is talking about sending me to San Diego for a three day training at the end of September. Would it be a problem if I needed you to come to DC to help out with Tony? Maria will be here as she always is, but I thought you might like the chance to spend some time with him. That's what you said last time, right, that you wanted more time with him?"

Jackson was immediately pleased at the prospect. "Just let me know the dates, Leroy, and I'll close the store and be down there with my grandson. How's he doing?"

"Thanks, Dad, I appreciate knowing I can count on you. He's fine, but he's trying to cram in every outdoor activity he can get before school starts back. I get exhausted just watching him go."

"Ok, good. I called you about something else, though."

"Which is...?"

"Do you remember Lisa, my cousin John's daughter? She's been in the New York City area for several years, but she and her husband have just finished a really contentious divorce..."

"What's this to me, Dad?" Jethro interrupted impatiently, pushing up his sleeve so that he could check his watch.

"Hold your horses. The point is, she's got a kid and has landed a job in Washington. She doesn't know a soul there, and hasn't even had a chance to house hunt. The job starts next week. I told her father I was pretty sure you wouldn't mind having the two of them stay with you until they got settled."

"Dad, that's not..."

"It won't be permanent Son, and the poor girl needs a break and needs someone to show her the ropes there."

"Dad, I don't want to host anyone."

"How would you feel if the situation were reversed, and you and my handsome grandson had nowhere to go? She's family, son."

That made an impression and Jackson smiled to himself. Jethro sighed audibly and finally said, "Ok, give her my number, and I'll help her. You promise me it's temporary, though?"

"I promise. Ok, this is good of you. Let me go so that I can get word to her."

They said their good byes and after his dad disconnected, Jethro shook his head incredulously. How did his father always get him to do things he didn't want to do? It was unbelievable how cunning that man was.

Later that night Lisa did call, and was so grateful and friendly that Jethro felt guilty about ever wanting to refuse the favor. It was set that she and Malcolm, her son, would arrive the next week. Coincidentally, Malcolm was twelve, the same age as Tony, so both boys should have some things in common, according to both parents.

Tony remained unimpressed with news of the upcoming visit and acted strangely uninterested with the development. Jethro and Maria, or Abuela, as Tony called her, were a little surprised that Tony didn't want access to every single detail.

Maria was more than the housekeeper. Over the years she had evolved into a family member, and she undertook preparations for the company as soon as she heard the news. She had the guest room ready pretty quickly, within two days, and told Tony to get up to his room and start on a major clean up.

Tony's suspicions surfaced instantly. His response was to start arguing loudly that there was no reason to clean up a room that would be off limits. Maria sighed deeply and answered that the contrary was true. Malcolm would be sharing Tony's room.

Anthony Gibbs was stunned and absolutely horrified, and resumed disagreeing in earnest. No, no, no, he didn't want to share anything with the stranger cousin! He worked himself up into such a tirade that Maria started counting, which was a signal that Tony was getting himself into trouble, and when she made it from one, then to two, then to three, she made good on the threat and punished him. Instead of meeting his friends that afternoon so that they could ride their bikes, Tony would be confined to the house until he cleaned his room as he had been instructed.

Maria's penalty did nothing to improve Tony's mood, and to show his displeasure, he deliberately skipped the cleaning and simply moved all of his "treasures" to one side of his bedroom, which he had determined would be his kingdom. Then he threw himself on the bed and pouted.


	2. An Appearance of Cooperation

**An Appearance of Cooperation**

When Jethro got home supper was ready and Maria was freezing some dishes for meals later in the week. She gave him a brief rundown of the day, and assured the Agent that Tony would come around. However, Jethro took one look at Tony's scowl when Tony bounced down the stairs to dinner and ordered, "Stop right there!"

Tony did, and his father pulled him over and raised his chin, so that Tony was making eye contact with him. Jethro explained, in no uncertain terms, that Malcolm would be sharing the room, and then he confirmed that until the bedroom passed his Abuela's inspection, Tony wouldn't be going outside at all. That was a dreaded punishment for the twelve year old, who was practically a poster child for any type of outdoor physical activity. Tony was always front and centre in a game of soccer, or basketball, or football. One afternoon with no play was painful enough, but more than that was unbearable!

Tony's response was to resume pouting, and to attempt an argument about his room belonging solely to him and his possessions belonging only to him. Jethro, unsympathetic and out of patience, responded to that by swatting his son's bottom with a painful smack, which made Tony squirm away from his grasp. Jethro added, "If you don't change that attitude, Anthony, you are going to be across my knee. I don't mean tomorrow, either. I mean I want an improvement immediately! Am I clear?'

Tony nodded and adopted a more cooperative expression. That satisfied his father and they took their seats at the table. Angry or not, Tony ate ravenously at supper. Maria was always worried that he had worms- he stayed skinny despite eating like a lumberjack. Tony was also on the tiny size, height wise, but Ducky had promised that Tony would be taller than his father as an adult. Maria left after supper, and Tony was in charge of the kitchen clean up. Gibbs excused himself to the basement with a fresh cup of coffee, and as he worked on his boat, decided, once again, that parenting was so much harder than being a federal agent.

By late the next afternoon Maria had approved Tony's clean up and he was rewarded with a promised couple of hours of freedom with his buds. They biked around the park down the street and over their favorite trails, carrying on their conversations as they rode. Tony was extremely popular with both boys and girls, so he was always surrounded by friends. The girls thought he was gorgeous, while the boys admired his physical prowess and talent at a variety of sports. His best friend, Dylan, rode beside him the last half hour and sympathized, as all good friends should, with the narrative of his depressing plight. No one wanted to have to give up space in a bedroom- that was pure territorial. Besides that, it would have been nice to be asked if the plans would be ok, not just assume that it was all right. The boys decided Tony would survive the ordeal by devoting every single moment he could away from the interloper, and over at Dylan's place.

Tony was a bright boy, and he knew that he had pushed his dad's buttons a little too much lately. There was no need to bring down any wrath on himself- that kind of logic had not worked too well in the past. Instead, he decided to appear cooperative and obedient if his dad were watching, or Abuela, either, for that matter. Then he could simply ignore the unwanted visitor and just chill.

Jethro was relieved to note that Tony appeared to have accepted the inevitable, and his attitude was more pleasant. Maria decided the domestic crisis had passed.

Cousins Lisa and Malcolm arrived in the middle of a terrific electrical storm, and Tony's first impression of Malcolm was that he was a nerdy, wimpy, little sopping wet Urkle. Malcolm was naturally pale and a little taller than Tony, and he was definitely a little pudgy. Tony narrowed his eyes in assessment, and felt an instantaneous self reassurance that this foe would be pretty easy to vanquish. His mother was definitely the over protective type, and after greeting Maria, Gibbs and Tony with hugs and nice pleasantries, she begged for a towel to dry her Malcolm before he caught his death of cold.

An hour later they were all congregated in the living room. The adults were drinking hot coffee and trading reminiscences while Tony was following a ball game on television. Malcolm, looking even more like a victim, was ensconced on the sofa beside his mother. Maria got up to put the finishing touches on supper and leaned down to tap Tony's shoulder to give a quiet directive. "Bambino, take Malcolm up to your room and show him where he can put his clothes and belongings."

Annoyed, Tony whispered back rudely, "Why do I have to show him anything? The game's on and I want to watch!"

Maria raised her eyebrows and responded with "One," then added, leaning down some more, "If you don't change your behaviour quickly, you are going to have an unhappy rest of the day, Two-"

Tony rolled his eyes but eased up from the floor. "Ok, I'm going." Stretching, he approached Malcolm and said, "Get your stuff and we'll take it to the room." Malcolm got up to get his belongings and Lisa smiled sweetly at Tony.

"It's so nice of you to share your room with your cousin. That's so unselfish!" Tony nodded triumphantly and she turned to his father, "Jethro, he's got such good manners. I'll bet he's not a bit of trouble."

Tony smirked at his dad. Jethro just shook his head and motioned for the boys to go on upstairs. "Yes, he's really very good when he wants to be." He smiled encouragingly at Tony and Tony smiled back, a little guiltily.

Upstairs, he quickly spelled out the rules to his cousin before Malcolm could get through the doorway. "Look, I put you on that side of the room by the closet. That big armchair there is actually a bed- your bed. It's already got sheets and covers on it and everything. Malcolm reached out to touch the overstuffed piece of furniture. It was actually more the size of a loveseat than a chair, and was, in reality, a clever and comfortable extra bed. He hadn't seen anything like that before. Tony opened the closet door next. He had moved all of his clothes and shoes to one side of the closet, and had taped up a sheet of construction paper with "Your side" and an arrow printed in black magic marker to mark the spot for Malcolm's items. Malcolm nodded his understanding, and Tony pointed to the mirrored dresser. "You can use any of the drawers on the left. I cleaned them all out." To be perfectly honest, Maria had done the cleaning, by weeding out clothes Tony had outgrown and then organizing his belongings, again. Tony had just put back the stacks of clothes where she directed. "Those are my games at the top. Don't touch them."

Malcolm stood in the middle of the room and looked around. It was a large bedroom, framed by posters of movie scenes, supermodels, and sports heroes. Two bulletin boards were covered with numerous pictures of middle school girls; obviously those were Tony's classmates. The bed- Tony's bed, was a replica of the Ferrari in Magnum P.I. Sports trophies covered most of the shelf space, and a tremendous bookcase was almost overflowing with books of every genre. Some framed photographs were on the dresser, and Malcolm recognized Tony and his dad in a couple, and one of Maria holding a younger Tony. There was another framed shot of Tony as a baby being held in the arms of a beautiful redhead. "Who's that?" Malcolm asked curiously.

Tony snapped, "That's my mom. Don't touch my pictures either."

"That's Cousin Jackson," Malcolm pointed to yet another photo.

"That's Grandpa," Tony contradicted irritably. "Anyway, that's where you can put your things. Just don't touch any of my stuff. Got it?" Malcolm nodded, so Tony continued, ungraciously. "The bathroom's through this door. There's a linen closet in there with towels and stuff. Clear?" Malcolm nodded again, and Tony added sarcastically, "Now do you think you can put your own stuff up by your own self so I can go down and finish watching the ballgame?" Malcolm's expression became hurt for just a second, and Tony felt a twinge of guilt.

"No, I've got it," Malcolm answered softly.


	3. It Keeps Getting Worse

**It Keeps Getting Worse**

Tony didn't argue and flew back down the steps and slid back into his spot by the television. Jethro and Lisa had disappeared, and Abuela was in the kitchen. When the game ended an hour later Tony made his way to the kitchen in search of a snack. Abuela was icing a cake.

"Where is your company?"

"Not my company," Tony muttered, then added a little louder, "upstairs, putting his stuff up. I'm hungry. Can I get something to eat?"

Maria narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Did you show him where he could put all of his belongings?"

Tony ignored her question and began reaching for the bowl of icing so that he could stick his finger in the sugary goodness. Maria popped his hand with the spatula she was using to frost the cake. "Not that- the cake is for dessert tonight. You can have some fruit. First, though, go get Malcolm. He's probably hungry and thirsty, too, and is shy to ask."

Tony started to argue but decided it really wouldn't be that much work to go get the cretin and escort him down. He hit the stairs at a run and burst through the door of his bedroom to find Malcolm holding one of his comic books. "Put that back," he ordered sternly. "I told you to not touch my stuff!" Malcolm dropped the book and tried to defend himself by saying he was just looking, and had no reason to mess it up. "I don't care!" Tony snapped. "Stay away from my things and get away from my side of the room. Now, get downstairs. Abuela- and you don't call her that- only I do- wants you in the kitchen- pronto!"

Though his feelings were obviously hurt, Malcolm didn't respond. He just nodded and headed downstairs. Tony took a moment to assess Malcolm's activities. Evidently, he'd been unpacking and trying to put away his clothes when Tony interrupted him. On top of a pile of pajamas was a photo of Malcolm and Lisa with a man who must be Malcolm's dad. Tony studied it a moment, then headed down himself.

As the afternoon progressed into the evening, Tony's mood got nastier and worse. Abuela and Gibbs made it a point to engage the guests in dinnertime conversation, and the more interested they were in Malcolm's responses, the more irritated Tony got. When dessert was finished and the adults left to enjoy steaming cups of coffee in the living room, Abuela instructed Tony to start cleaning. Lisa spoke up and said Malcolm could certainly lend a hand, and the boy agreed good naturedly, increasing Tony's annoyance. As they started rinsing dishes to load the dishwasher Malcolm said quietly, "Tony, I know you don't want to be around me. You can go and I'll finish this by myself." Tony thought he'd misheard, so asked Malcolm to repeat the offer. When Malcolm did, he couldn't believe his good fortune. He absolutely hated cleaning up the kitchen, and now this schmuck was going to shoulder the chore for him! Life was good!

"Ok," Tony grinned, throwing down the sponge he'd been holding and heading for his room. He would cut on his IPod and listen to music for a nice relaxing bit of after dinner entertainment. Passing the living room Abuela, who was putting on her sweater to leave for the evening, saw him and asked suspiciously if he had finished. With a smile reminiscent of the cat who swallowed the canary he told her Malcolm had volunteered for the job.

Fifteen minutes later, sprawled out on his bed reading a comic book and with his IPod filling his hearing, he missed his father's knock, and nearly fell of the bed when his dad was suddenly standing in front of him.

"Wow, Dad!" he said shakily. "Give me some warning next time. You about scared me to death!"

Jethro smirked and motioned for Tony to take out the ear buds and scoot over on the bed. "Hey Son, I want to talk to you."

Tony flipped onto his back and gave his father his attention. "Aye, aye, Captain."

Jethro leaned down and tussled his hair, and Tony responded with one of his megawatt smiles. "Tony, I know you aren't too pleased about having a roommate, and I realize that Malcolm and his mom are strangers. To tell you the truth, I hadn't seen Lisa since we were both about your age."

Tony raised his eyebrows, trying to decide how his dad could remember that far back.

"Anyway, the point is that they are family- our family, and that is why they are with us."

"You didn't even ask me," Tony interrupted, "you just told me."

Jethro nodded and kept his voice level. "That is correct. But what is also correct is that I am the adult and the parent, and you are the child. It was not your decision to invite them here- it was mine, and I don't have to consider any input from you."

Tony scowled, and Jethro continued. "The point is that they are here now, and they are guests in our home. While they are under this roof they are going to be given respect, both of them."

It dawned on Tony the direction the conversation was taking and he began to frown and plan a verbal comeback to make his father see that Malcolm should go somewhere else.

"So," Jethro continued, reaching down to move Tony's sneaker off the bedspread, "I expect you to be both pleasant and helpful to Malcolm. You are not going to be unfriendly, or rude, and you are absolutely not going to push your chores off on him." Tony blushed- he should have known getting out of cleaning the kitchen would make its way to his dad. "So," his father concluded, "this is a warning- a count of one."

"Dad, that's not fair- I didn't know you were counting!" Tony was instantly on the defense. Anytime that warning count of one progressed to two, and then the number three came into play, trouble for him loomed on the immediate horizon. "How am I even at one, anyway? I haven't done anything wrong," he sputtered indignantly.

Jethro shook his head incredulously, "Your attitude and display of bad manners towards your company thus far gets you to one, young man."

Tony scowled angrily and picked at a loose thread on his comforter. "You don't even care what I want."

"Of course I care. The bottom line, though, is that you are not going to get what you want in this scenario. Plus, your conduct and attitude are just about to earn you a spanking."

"What, Dad- why am I going to get spanked? This is just wrong!"

"Lower your voice. You know exactly what I'm saying, and you also know exactly the actions and attitude you'd better get rid of- quickly. I have no intention of having another conversation with you about this."

Tony opened his mouth to make a smart retort, but thought better of it. Jethro stood up and gave him a smile. "I want to see the son I am so proud of appear and charm our company, ok? Go take your shower and you can have some television time before bed." Tony nodded but didn't speak as his dad made his way out of the bedroom. He was almost furious! His whole life had been turned upside down for a cousin he didn't like, and certainly didn't invite to come stay. Furthermore, he'd been threatened with getting his own butt beaten should the little nerd not be enjoying his carefree vacation! Promising himself he'd make the intruder miserable for getting him into trouble, he headed to the bathroom for his shower.

The rest of the evening passed quietly and Tony kept his thoughts to himself when told he had to go to bed when Malcolm did- a full thirty minutes earlier than he'd anticipated, because Lisa insisted Malcom looked exhausted, so it was Malcolm's bedtime. Jethro joined in, disloyally, adding that Tony might as well get to bed, also. Lying in bed listening to Malcolm breathing on the other side of the room, Tony decided it was a miserable, horrible time in his young life. He fell asleep plotting a way to ditch his albatross.

Jethro left for NCIS early the next morning and Lisa, just starting her new job at an ad agency, left right after. Tony wanted to make the most of the day, considering school was going to start back pretty soon. He called Dylan right after breakfast and they made plans to gather the boys and head out for a movie right after lunch. They argued back and forth good naturedly about sneaking in to something scary, like _Halloween_, but decided it would be up to the majority vote. Dressing quickly he hastily made his bed and straightened his section of the room, then gave the bathroom a quick sprucing. He hadn't seen Malcolm since breakfast, and assumed he was watching television.

Running down the steps, he slid around the corner and into the kitchen searching for Maria. Finding her in the laundry room folding clothes, he ran up and kissed her, then pushed himself onto the top of the dryer. "Abuela, my room and bathroom are clean and I have all my chores done. You can check if you want."

"Really? Is that so?" she asked absentmindedly, searching the mound of clothes in front of her for the mate to a blue sock she held.

"That's right. I did a super good job, and you didn't even have to tell me more than once," he reminded sweetly.

Maria smiled and brushed his bangs away from his eyes. "You are my good boy," she answered with pride.

"So," Tony continued. "Since I have done everything I was supposed to do, can I go to the movies with all the guys this afternoon?"

Maria shook her head in disbelief, "You can't possibly have any allowance left. Where do you have money for a show?"

"I do, I promise. I even have some for popcorn and a Coke. Can I go? Dylan's mom said he could. We could get to the one o'clock one and be back before Dad gets home from work."

"That sounds ok, but..." Before she could finish, she was interrupted by Malcolm coming in the kitchen calling for her. Answering, she told him to come through to the laundry room, then turned back to Tony and said, "I was going to say that you need to take him with you. Introduce him to your friends, and let him go see the film."

"No!" Tony replied with horror, "Abuela, no!"

Malcolm appeared before she could respond. He smiled a greeting at Tony, then turned to Maria and asked politely, "Mrs. Osirio, are there some chores you need me to do? I cleaned up my side of the bedroom, and straightened up the living room. I could do something else if you like."

Maria was most definitely impressed and practically beamed at that news and Tony felt himself getting annoyed. That Malcolm was just trying to get all the attention and act like he was such an angel. He was such a phony.

"You can call me Maria, and actually, Tony and I were just going over some plans that include you."

"Abuela!" Tony started to whine and stopped when he saw the look she gave him. Turning to Malcolm he asked, "Hablas espanol?" When Malcolm looked at him blankly, Tony felt the first sign of victory he'd had in twenty four hours. Turning back to Maria, he began arguing in fluent Spanish that he was not responsible for this cousin, he didn't like him, and he certainly wasn't going to be embarrassed having a geek show up when he met up with his friends. Did she want Tony to be laughed at because of this cousin?

Malcolm seemed to realize that Tony was being ordered to befriend him, and muttering a quick "Excuse me, " he headed out of the kitchen and to the back yard to walk around by himself.

Maria yanked Tony off the dryer and held onto his arm, then smacked his rear end- hard. "Let me tell you something young man. You are not going anywhere except to a time out in your room until lunch! Then I will not even consider having you not return to time out unless you have a plan of action to share with me, directed at how you are going to include that child in all of your future activities. Do you understand me?"

Tony was hurt that Maria hadn't taken his side, and also cognizant of the fact that he had not gotten her that mad in quite a long time. She was furious! In a moment of clarity, he realized it was in his best interests to not argue with her, so he simply turned, walked through the kitchen, and went to his room. Hot tears started the moment he closed the door, and he threw himself on the bed and cried in frustration. This was just so wrong, and so unfair!

When the tears were spent, he got up to pace his room and think. Going to his window he looked out over the back yard. Malcolm was evidently helping Maria work in the flower bed. He was laughing, and she was laughing, as well, as they moved some of the flowers from one part of the bed to the other. Tony felt betrayed. The nerd had even replaced Tony in Maria's heart and affection. Lunchtime was a long way away, and Tony eventually did start thinking about how to earn his way out of time out.

He slipped out in the hall and grabbed the phone, then took it back in the room with him. Abuela hadn't said not to get on the phone, now had she? Dylan was sympathetic when he dialled him and spilled out the morning's crisis. Dylan also wanted to go to the movie, and to get all his friends together. Reasoning with Tony and arguing him down point by point, he got him to realize that his future happiness depended upon appearing to be Malcolm's buddy. His advice was to drag the intruder along, then they could just ignore him and make him sit somewhere else in the theatre. Tony reluctantly agreed, and hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, whispered that he had to hang up.

There was a timid knock on the door, and Tony had a moment to slip the phone out of sight under the bed. He really didn't want to get Maria any madder. It crossed his mind that the phone could ring and give him away, but he had to hope that it didn't happen.

Malcolm appeared in the opening and Tony let out a breath. It wasn't his Abuela, after all. Dismissing his presence he threw himself on the bed and grabbed one of his comics. Malcolm sat down in the chair and spoke softly, "Tony?"

"What?" Tony asked, in the rudest tone he could conjure.

"Tony, I'm sorry you're in trouble. I know what it's about- at least I'm pretty sure I do. It's about me, isn't it? You don't want me around, and they are making you invite me. Is all that it?"

Tony didn't respond, but felt his stomach flip flop. His conscience took over and he realized how awful he had been to someone who hadn't deserved it. Nevertheless, this cousin had still caused him numerous problems since his arrival, and Tony wasn't ready to forgive him. He remained silent.

"I know you don't like me. I can tell. I don't have that many things about me to like. I don't know how to play sports, I'm not that good looking, and I just really only know how to work on computers and make good grades. That's about all that I know how to do." He paused, and Tony, beginning to get interested in the narration, propped himself on an elbow and turned to face Malcolm. His cousin continued, "Anyway, I think even my dad isn't that fond of me. He always wanted me to be tough, and I just don't know how. So when my folks split, he didn't even fight for custody, or ask for joint custody, or anything." Tony definitely was feeling empathetic to the boy, and he winced appreciatively to the observation. "Well, I guess the good news is my mom really loves me. There's no question about that. But she just doesn't want me to do anything. She's very overprotective."

He smiled, but it didn't touch his eyes, and Tony sat up crosslegged on the bed to hear the rest.

"So what I'm trying to tell you is that I told your grandmamma- wait, I mean I know she's not really your grandmamma..."

"Don't worry about it," Tony ordered. "Just finish what you were saying."

"Ok- well I told her that you had invited me to the movie before you ever went downstairs, and that I had refused to go with you. She believed me, and she believed my story. So, I think that she's going to come up pretty soon and tell you that the punishment is over and you can go."


	4. Playing Nicely

**Playing Nicely**

Tony absorbed the change of events. He was amazed that Malcolm had that much gumption, or that Malcolm could lie that convincingly. "Thanks, man, that was good of you. I do want to get out with my friends."

"As I said, I think she is going to come up and lift your punishment."

"No," Tony contradicted, "she'll make the time out stay until lunch because of the way I was talking and what I was saying. She considers that disrespect. But I do appreciate the fact that you went to bat for me."

Malcolm shifted in the chair and then stood. "Well, I'm going to go down and stop bothering you. I guess I'll see you at lunch."

"Wait a second," Tony ordered. "Listen, if you want to learn to play sports, I can help you. I mean I will help you. Maybe tomorrow, or later this afternoon, I can teach you some of the basics.'

Malcolm's smile was almost blinding, and he answered shyly, "I'd really appreciate it," then left the room.

Tony lay on his back and let his mind absorb what had just transpired. Truthfully, he felt sorry for the kid. He couldn't imagine not being loved. Jethro showed him and told him often how much he meant to him, how much he loved him, and Abuela was just as effusive. Then he also had the affection of his grandpa, and Ducky, and... One by one, Tony reeled off a long list of people he knew who cared deeply for him.

When Abuela finally called him down for lunch, Tony was a bit subdued. Once the boys were seated at the table, Tony spoke up before she could bring up Malcolm exonerating him. Taking a sip of his chocolate milk he spoke softly, "Abuela, lo siento- I am sorry about my behaviour earlier. I was disrespectful, and I do know better than to act like that." Maria studied him closely as he spoke. "I also know that you expect better of me, as a person. I understand why you sent me to time out as punishment." Maria nodded and he continued, looking across the table at Malcolm. "So I want to ask you for permission for Malcolm and me to go to the movie today. I have money, and I'll pay his way." Malcolm's head snapped up in surprise, but Tony continued. "We can be home whatever time you say." With that, he settled back in his chair and waited for her answer.

Maria, though a little surprised, gave her permission immediately. As soon as lunch was finished, Tony called Dylan with arrangements. Dylan and the rest of their friends met Tony and Malcolm at the house, and set out for the mall's cinema. Tony introduced his cousin, and taking their cues from Tony, they included him in the group, albeit on the very fringes. Since Malcolm had no bike, he rode behind Tony while the others rode solo.

As soon as they got to the mall they spotted a problem, or actually several problems. There, lounging by the ticket booth, was Stewart Miller, two years older than Tony's group, and his buddies, a group of eighth graders who liked to push around the younger kids. Stewart approached Tony's group with delight, and his eyes immediately lit on Malcolm. "What have we here?" he practically chortled.

Tony pushed in front of Stewart and ordered, "He's my cousin, Stewart- leave him alone."

Stewart laughed, and his friends joined in. "Well, he looks like a Pillsbury.."

"Shut up," Tony commanded. "He's not messing with you." Turning to his group, Tony motioned them towards the ticket booth.

Stewart, anxious for some type of confrontation, called out, "Hey, Tony! I dare you and your fans there to race bikes with us at Rock Creek Park."

Excitement raced like electricity through the boys. They were being called out, and in a competition they thought they might actually win against the older group. All of them practically lived on their bikes during the summer, and they were great cyclists.

Tony answered reluctantly, "No, but maybe next time." A chorus of disappointed comments bombarded him and Tony hissed, "Are you crazy? You know how far Rock Creek Park is from here, and you also know that every one of us has been told, over and over, that we had better not go to that park without adults. Personally, I'm not in the mood to get my butt beaten. And that is exactly what my dad will do. Believe me, he won't be playing, either. He'll see it as deliberate disobedience. The rest of you know the same thing's gonna happen to you if our parents find out." Tony made sense, and he was actually right, and for once, was the mature voice of reason. Rubbing salt in the wound, the boys in Stewart's camp began taunting them with comments that they were babies, that they were too little to leave home, and other insults designed to make them throw caution to the wind. Their strategy was clever. It worked.

One thing about Tony- once he had made up his mind to do something, he did it with the intention of coming out on top and excelling. As the two groups quickly discarded the movie plans and began pedalling to Rock Creek Park, Tony educated Malcolm on their competition, and the trouble the boys would get in if caught going somewhere forbidden. Speaking quickly, Tony tried to impress upon Malcolm the importance of not appearing scared, but of just following Tony's lead and doing what Tony did.

The park was scenic and pretty, and the boys zoomed in and followed directions to the bike paths. Competitions began instantly with one boy from one side challenging the other to race a certain section of a path. As the competitions continued, the boys moved to wilder, less settled areas of the park. After an hour they were all exhausted and sweaty, and Tony told Stewart, "Ok, that's it. Seven races and we won four of them- we rule. We have to stop so we can get cleaned up and get home now."

"He didn't race," Stewart pointed to Malcolm, who had managed to be unobtrusive the entire afternoon. "It's not finished until he races. It was supposed to be all of us racing."

Tony shook his head. "No, it's over."

Stewart laughed out loud, and in a singsong voice called out, "Tony's cousin is a chicken, a sissy looking chicken, and Tony knows he can't win a race against us!"

As soon as the last word was out Tony's fist connected with the bully's nose and Stewart went down. All the boys scrambled backwards. Things had taken a nasty turn!

"Shut up talking about my cousin!" Tony yelled, watching with anger and anticipation as Stewart moved his hand from his injured nose and blood flowed down his mouth. "He hasn't done anything to you, and you're not going to tell him what to do! The race is finished. We won fair and square."

Stewart finally got his footing and he immediately rushed towards Tony to reciprocate with a blow of his own. Before he could make it across the ground that separated them, Malcolm jumped between them. "Ok, I'll race. Let's go." Tony turned in shock, but Malcolm gave him a pleading look. Stewart stopped where he was, clearly not expecting Malcolm's participation, and Tony spoke up and backed his cousin. "Ok, he's ready. Why are your guys too scared to race him?"

Stewart bellowed to Michael, who was probably the best rider in his group. Pointing up the hill he motioned, "That's it, down the bluff there. We'll stand here and you two race from the top up there."

Tony looked carefully at Malcolm. He knew in his heart that Malcolm was not in Michael's league, but Malcolm returned his gaze without flinching and then nodded. "Take my bike," Tony responded, nodding his approval.

Michael and Malcolm had to actually walk the bikes up the hill, because the foliage was thick and difficult to manoeuvre in many places. The rest of the boys sat down on the ground below and waited for the action. Stewart shot daggers at Tony, but otherwise, didn't do more than that. Though physically smaller, Tony was the better fighter.

Tony felt his heart actually stop when he saw Malcolm poised to go at the top of that hill. He closed his eyes a moment and prayed, and when he looked up, Malcolm was well in the lead and flying down the bluff. Tony's group started screaming Malcolm's name, and as he hurtled down at top speed, he waved theatrically and let out a whoop. Tony felt a surge of pride, and had a brief moment of clarity that it wasn't often that Malcolm had a cheering section. Michael fell off his bike before they were halfway down, and Tony and his boys were jumping up and down in victory as Malcolm exited the terrain of the bluff and hit flat ground for his final approach. At that victorious moment, a rabbit ran out from the underbrush and straight into his path. Malcolm reacted with instinct, swung the wheel, lost control, and then somersaulted over the handlebars, landing with a thud on his left arm.


	5. Responses

**Responses**

Tony was the first to respond, and recognized immediately that the arm was broken. The radius bone had snapped. He had been given too many anatomy lessons from Ducky over the years to not be able to diagnose a fracture when he saw one. He knelt down and ordered Dylan to go get help. Once they realized there was a casualty and blame could be cast, Stewart and his group made a hasty retreat, scared that they would end up in trouble. Tony and his boys were left to wait, and to deal with the repercussions.

Dylan snagged a park ranger, who locked up all of the bikes to keep them from being stolen and transported the whole group to the hospital. Tony stayed by Malcolm's side, and was tortured with guilt as he watched Malcolm writhing in pain. He was the one who'd gotten him into the whole predicament! It was all his fault. He should have just walked away from Stewart, and refused to let his cousin compete. His dad was always lecturing him on just walking away from bad situations, instead of staying in and making them worse. Of course, he'd done the stupid thing instead of the smart thing once again! The nurse finally escorted him back out to the other boys. She assured him that they were doing their best for Malcolm and that they had called his mom, who was en route.

Lisa came running in minutes later, clearly terrified at being summoned by emergency room personnel. She spotted Tony and he pointed her to Malcolm's examination room without a word. With Malcolm's mother present, though, Tony's watch duties were freed, and he rejoined the other boys sitting forlornly in the waiting room with the ranger. They sat glumly, silently, until the ranger interrupted to tell them that they could go back to the park that afternoon to retrieve their bikes. When he got no response the ranger ventured a guess. "Are you boys thinking that your parents are going to be angry with you?"

Heads nodded in response, and finally Dylan spoke. "I don't think- I know I'm going to get a whipping for going to the park. Tony will, too, and.." he looked over at his friends and continued, "and actually, we are all going to get it. The folks are going to hit the roof over this."

One by one, their parents arrived and took them home, having been notified by the helpful Rock Creek Park ranger. Tony saw Gibbs when he arrived because he came through the emergency room door almost running. As soon as Gibbs saw his son, sheer relief flooded his face. Tony ran to him and grabbed his father around the waist. As Gibbs leaned down to kiss the top of his head, Tony burst into tears and clung to his daddy, recounting the events in bursts of emotion. Gibbs let him cry himself out, then moved them both to a chair. He put his arm around Tony and held him. He didn't speak, but while Tony buried his face in his father's strong shoulder, Jethro rubbed his back. They sat for several minutes. Finally, Lisa reappeared with Malcolm in a plaster cast. Jethro and Tony got up to meet them, and Lisa told them to go ahead and leave. She'd be going as soon as she had finished the paperwork and had gotten Malcolm's prescription filled.

When they reached the truck, Tony informed his dad that the ranger had told them to go pick up their bikes. Jethro nodded and drove them to Rock Creek Park, where Tony directed him to the ranger station. After loading the bicycle they drove home.

Malcolm was asleep when they arrived, knocked out by painkillers. His mother and Abuela were drinking coffee in the kitchen, but Abuela grabbed Tony the second he walked in and embraced him, telling him how worried she had been in a flood of emotional Spanish. Jethro went up to check on Malcolm as well. When he returned, he and his cousin sat in the living room and talked quietly. Tony guessed they were discussing the fact that the boys got into trouble because they were somewhere they shouldn't have been. The afternoon ended quietly with a nice supper that Malcolm woke up to eat. When the meal was concluded, Gibbs looked at his son and instructed him to come to the basement after clean up. Tony flinched but nodded in understanding. Malcolm eyed him sympathetically, guessing correctly that Jethro was not going to wait to address Tony's breaking of rules. As Tony started clearing dishes Malcolm began to help, even though the cast made it awkward. Tony smiled and told his cousin he'd handle it, but Malcolm stayed in the kitchen anyway, just to keep Tony company. Both boys verbally reviewed the afternoon's activities, and Tony actually laughed as Malcolm described Stewart's expression when Tony decked him. It turned out that Malcolm had a flair of mimicking people.

A half hour later, Tony descended the steps to the basement with a feeling of dread. His stomach was in knots. Jethro, sanding a section of the boat, stopped working, and thinking that Tony had already suffered quite a bit, got straight to the point. He watched Tony settle himself on the bottom step.

"Tony, what do you think I want to discuss?" he asked, finally.

Tony couldn't stop a tear from sliding down, but answered honestly, hoping that his dad would be able to see the day from his perspective. "You want to talk about rules, and about how I broke a bunch of them. Dad, I know I'm in trouble and that I shouldn't have gone to Rock Creek, or taken Malcolm there. I didn't have permission to go anywhere but the movie, but Dad, Stewart and his friends were messing with us! Stewart always messes with us and today it just was too much for us to take! No one meant for Malcolm to get hurt, Dad, I promise."

Jethro sighed and then went to sit down by his child. "Tony, there is nothing scarier than being a parent and having someone call you to come to the hospital, where they inform you- your son is in residence, not safely at home as you left him. That was really frightening for me. Finding out that my cousin's child had been injured and had broken his arm was also not news I welcomed. Then when I get the back story, I find out that you have ignored regulations I have given you, and have gone out and just done what you wanted when you wanted. That's a serious problem, Anthony."

Tony nodded, and tears began spilling over and running down his face. He had cried so much at the hospital that he was surprised there were any tears left. Jethro assessed his son's emotional state and said softly, "Anthony, my main job is to protect you, because I love you very much, and I take my parenting duties seriously. The rules you are expected to obey are there for a reason, and when those rules are broken, then you know that there are going to be consequences, right?"

Tony nodded again, but Jethro ordered, "I want a verbal answer."

"Yes sir, that's right." Tony replied miserably.

"Ok, then- you have just lost your bike for the next two weeks. It's in the garage now, and you are not allowed to even reach a hand out and touch it for the next fourteen days."

Tony's head snapped up and he sputtered, "But Dad, that's almost all the time left before school starts back!"

"Two weeks," Jethro repeated firmly. "In addition, you are not going to leave this yard for the next seven days. That means, you are going to be confined to the house- no grocery store, no friends, no movies, no anywhere. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." It just kept getting worse and worse.

"Ok-" Jethro motioned Tony to get up off the step, and Tony's tears began again, in earnest. He had known he was in for a spanking the minute Malcolm hit the ground in Rock Creek Park, and was intelligent enough to understand that his dad ranked the day as a pretty bad infraction. Tony, unfortunately, knew the drill, and slowly tugged down his shorts and boxers. The physical attack on his bottom was dreaded because of the upcoming physical discomfort, but the embarrassment of having his dad deliver the lesson on his uncovered rear added to the misery of the occasion. Jethro pulled his son down over his lap, and reiterated his disappointment on his son's bottom in no uncertain terms. Recognizing that Tony had already learned a valuable lesson at Rock Creek Park, Jethro stopped the physical punishment after just five stinging painful smacks to his rear end. Tony's butt was in too much pain for him to appreciate his dad's leniency, though. The whipping hurt! His dad knew how to make sure that in the future, he wouldn't think about going somewhere he'd been forbidden to go, without considering the consequences. When Tony's crying finally slowed to sniffs, his father released him, then pulled him close and said, "Tony, I love you very much, and I expect you to start using some of the good judgment you've been taught. This had better be the last time I have to deal with you going somewhere you've been forbidden to go."

"Understood, Dad-" he mumbled, trying to rub some of the sting from his backside.

"Ok, head on up and get your shower. Bedtime's at eight tonight." Well, he'd seen that coming. Tony wasn't surprised at the early bedtime- that was a typical consequence when he messed up. He started up the stairs, but stopped when his father called out, "And Anthony, I am very proud that you stuck up for your family today."

Tony turned back and smiled.


End file.
